Tag: an australian man wanting to marry a thai women the process

This is a step by step process for a Thai marriage for an Australian in Thailand.

If you are Australian and wish to marry your Thai Girlfriend in Thailand this is a step by step process. The process may be similar for other nationalities such as American and English and Canadian but you will need to check with your own Embassies first.

This step by spet process for a Thai marriage is between an Australian man and a Thai woman who have both been divorced so it is a little more complicated but worth knowing. Obviously if you have not been divorced the process will be somewhat simpler.

Step #1 – The Australian Embassy

You will both need a copy of your divorce certificates to prove you are able to marry again. You will need a certified copy of this also which you get get done at the Embassy.

Go to the Australian Embassy in 37 South Sathorn Road, Bangkok – Telephone: 02 344 6300. You will need your Australian passport to get access. You will have to leave your bag at the front entrance for security reasons so take any documents with you. and also take a pen!!

You will need to fill in a Statutory Declaration form stating you are able to marry as well as various other information. You will need to state your Thai fiancee’s ID and/or passport number on this form also.

The form requires you to state your annual income, although they will not check this you need to think ahead because what you put down here will be recorded and may come up in the future if/when you are applying for a Visa for your Thai wife to come to Australia and you need to provide Financial sponsor support. Anything over $35K a year is ok for Thai authorities to allow the marriage but may not be enough to support her in AU. However it is best to be honest so just do that.

Once you have filled out the form correctly you can submit it along with your fee of approx 1500THB (approx $45AU)

They will give documents back to you stamped with Australian Embassy seals.

Then you are done with this step and can go to step #2.

The whole process took us about an hour in the Embassy as there were only a few other people there doing the same and it was a week day. Just make sure you have all your information with you. They will give you all the next things you need to do on a form at the Embassy which is also in Thai.

Step #2 – The Translation process

So now you will need to get your documents translated into Thai, there are plenty of places to do this but they must be certified translations.

As you will also need to submit your applications to the Thai authorities to approve everything so you can marry the best place to go is Legalization Division Department of Consular Affairs 123 Chaengwattana Road, Laksi, Bangkok 10210Tel: (66-2) 2575 1056-61. The website is: Ministry of Foreign Affairs look at the Consular information section or for the Thai version go to this website: Thai Consular . This building has translation services and is also where you submit your application to marry a Thai national. It has a cafe and some shops downstairs so even though you may have to wait around for a few hours ( which you will!!) there are places to at least relax a little (if that’s possible when dealing with Thai Government!!)

Basically you get your documents translated from one of the many service people hanging around on the ground floor touting Farang (Westerners) for business…yes they know what you are there for mate!! If you are divorced this will cost between 1100 and 1500THB ($35 to $50AU), get your Thai girlfriend/fiance to negotiate this. It is more expensive because Australian divorce certificates are from the court and more complicated for them to translate correctly.

It will take an hour or two to get your translated documents back so I suggest grab yourself a book and a cup of coffee and kick back for a while, no use in getting stressed over waiting as it will take as long as it will take and will depend how busy they are.

Once you have your translated documents back you can then go and submit them upstairs to the Thai Consular for them to approve your application of marriage to a Thai National. You will need to grab a ticket and wait until your number is called up. Now if this is your first marriage you can pay for an express service, just ask to see the supervisor and they can sometimes make this happen for you on the same day. But, if you are divorced then sadly no express service!!!

Once you submit your application documents (Australian and translated Thai versions) you will pay your fee of approx 1400THB (apprx $40AU) and will be told it should take 2 days to process.

Come back in 2 days time and again be prepared to wait around a bit. You should be able to go to the desk first and check to see if your documents are ready, if not they will tell you when they will be ready…usually they call names out over the PA system so it is best to wait in that area so you don’t miss it, however if you have time then you can go and come back around the time they say it will be ready, just go back to the desk and ask again (you will have a receipt they will have given you before so just show this each time and for God’s sake do not lose it!!)

A little tip….make sure if you don’t get called up by name you keep checking at the desk. We made this mistake waiting to be called when the documents were actually there…No offence to Thai’s but some government workers are not like ours in Australia, they don’t care too much if you get left behind..so be proactive.

Hopefully you will get your documents back without any problems but CAUTION!! It is nt unlikely that there may be some mistakes with the translation and if this happens you will have to get them fixed up by the translators…oh yes!! this happened to us so beware..this can put serious delays on your schedule if you do not plan for this.

Hopefully everything is fine and now you have your approval from the Thai Consular to marry with a Thai National, you have all the documents to prove it so you can move on to Step #3 and go get married!!

Ok, now if you plan to do this all on the same day then I advise you go early as you will be waiting around for a while.

Step #3 – The Marriage at District Office

Well done, now you have all the things you need to go and get married which for it to be legal in Australia will need to be registered at a District office in Bangkok. Again there are a number of District offices available to do this. One office is the Payathai District Office, pic below.

Now you are ready for the third and final step in this process, to actually get married. This step will require your Thai girlfriend/fiance to have all her documents to prove she is able to marry. She will need divorce certificate if applicable, passport, ID, house book..in fact she will most likely know anyway but just make sure she has everything she can think of!! Better too much than not enough.

You will need to fill out various forms, actually I should re phraze that because your thai girlfriend/fiance will need to fill them ut because everything needs to be in Thai. You will just need your passport and divorce certificates and docs that you got from the Consular office , you know, the ones you had to wait 5 hours for!!!

Basically this process will be done mostly between the Official and your Thai girlfriend/fiance so again sit back and relax because the whole process will take about 1 hour to do.

Lastly you will need 2 witnesses to your marriage, preferably someone you know and who is a Thai National. You will need to ask them to attend and sign some documents also and one of them will need to translate some documents for you.

A little tip – Most district offices will close off accepting marriages at 3pm or 3.30pm and most offices actually close at 4pm so allow plenty of time.

Once all the forms are signed, you have them witnessed the Officer will process everything and then write you a marriage certificate ( 2copies in fact). There is a small fee of about 50Thai baht (approx $1.50AU) and that’s it…now you are married to a Thai National and your Thai girlfriend is now your Thai Wife.

So now you guys are married you can arrange your celebrations, honeymoon and get your visa application lodged if you intend to live in Australia, but that’s a whole other story!!!